Have your parcel delivery drivers lost all respect?

Dec 4, 2012 3:23 PM

This is my 5th year in this particular house and this has become the norm, my neighborhood has at least 3 mail carriers that I've seen - I assume 2 are subs. Then I get random UPS drivers, but sometimes the same guy. I buy a lot of things online and we have those small community mailboxes (which happens to be on my property) so any parcel not the size of a standard envelope needs to go to my front door.

The Monday after Black Friday, I had a nice pile delivered to me with a courtesy doorbell ring. As the days have passed and the number of packages have increased, the service has gone to zero. First off, both UPS and USPS have started just dropping packages at the end of my walk way to my front door. It's another 20 feet to my door but they seem to just say "F it" and just throw them there. They have stopped ringing my door bell and I have to run outside everytime I hear a truck driving by. I work from home so I am a hawk about these things.

Top Answers

actually, can they even leave the package there? Is the package just sitting there in plain sight 20 feet from your house? for US mail, i'd call your local post office and see if that's even legal. For UPS, i'd definitely call and ask what their policy is and file a complaint if needed. like you said, you're paying for delivery.

I totally understand that every jerk in the neighborhood probably has a package coming with regularity leading up to Christmas and they probably have to walkup to hundreds of doors a day. However, I have paid for the delivery and I expect my packages to be walked that extra 20 feet so every car passing by doesn't see a pile of delivered packages sitting in my front yard.

So I ask, has your parcel delivery person given up and just half-asses it now?

I am very lucky. My UPS driver is great and if I am not home and he needs a signature he will give the package to the UPS guy that delivers to my office to get the signature. Talk about going above and beyond!

Maybe there is some animosity because of good ol' Amazon business. Rumor has it that USPS just won the bid for all the Amazon shipping and took it from UPS.

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between amazon, zappos, newegg and woot, i think my UPS delivery guy now has zero respect for me.

i see my packages in strange positions that indicate they were literally tossed over the metal fence gating off our front yard. it's a latched gate and doesn't take more than a second to open, but apparently that's too much effort for the guy who gets 10 packages a week.

I am apparently one of the crowd that gets excellent service from their couriers. I'm not sure who does it, but either my USPS or UPS carrier will pick up my newspaper from the sidewalk/lawn and put it with my packages on the front porch.

I have the best delivery folks in the country. My USPS carrier is a charmer: friendly, efficient, and always good at making sure my mailbox lid is closed properly to keep rain out. We always offer him ice water or sodas when we're home for his delivery times, he waves when we pass on the street if we've missed him, and we always make sure to give him a holiday gift card as a thank you. I don't know if we have a "regular" UPS guy or not, but whoever we have, he/they're equally awesome. Our parcels are always tucked safely onto the screened front porch, nothing has ever been damaged, and they're friendly. One time we came home in a typical summer-time rainstorm to find a box on the stoop with a huge plastic bag of mulch on top of it. Saw the guy the next day: the porch door was stuck, he thought it was locked, so he dragged the bag of mulch from the side of the porch to cover the parcel to protect it from the rain. What a great guy!

My FedEx guy is dyslexic, year-round. I live at 3239! not 3329! (The packages are always labeled right.) I hate it when FedEx is the only option and I'm shipping to my house, 1/3rd of the packages end up at my neighbor's, but they're good sports about it. I'd like to talk to the guy, but I'm not home during the day.

My husband's company just switched from Fedex to UPS.
Our very first UPS delivery under this new contract? Was four 50lb boxes literally scattered on our front lawn.
The second? They stacked them across our front steps so that you couldn't get around them.
The third? We heard the truck and met the driver outside. Our boxes seem to make it all the way onto the porch after that conversation.

Our USPS package delivery? Pretty good. That guy works hard and gets our stuff to the porch with a friendly attitude. Whether or not the packages get on the truck, well - that's hit or miss. I've been told that one of mine was being used as a door stop. No joke.
The mail carrier(s)? Forget it. They don't even pick up mail from our house some days. There's also at least one day during the week that we don't get our mail.

FedEx is my problem. I live in a townhouse complex so everyone...let me restate that...EVERYONE...goes in through the carport and into the back patio vs the front door. If I get a UPS or USPS, they drop it over the gate. FedEx will inevitably drop it at the front door, then put a nice sign to anyone walking around that the box is behind a bush. I have a locked chain-link gate so I don't have to worry about losing items but no...front door. Always the bleeding front door. Luckily I'm psychotic about checking ship dates or I'd have crap sitting outside for a few days or stolen to before I knew what happened.

I had a USPS sub decide that I no longer wanted to receive my packages any more, so she put in a forwarding order to nowhere! It took a week to straighten out, and I had at least 10 packages going all over the state, in circles, before finally getting back to me. I never had any trouble with UPS, but the other day, as one of the subs was getting off the truck to deliver my packages, my wife overheard him muttering "This fuc*ing guy, every day!" When he realized that she had heard him, he quickly and quietly returned to his truck.

I seem to get a lot of subs from UPS especially. Mail seems to come at all weird hours, so I assume I get a sub for that as well -- old neighborhood was a lot more consistent.
However, with that said, my primary UPS is great and will even bring packages to the back door. I have a front stoop, but that's about it -- nowhere to really "hide" packages per se, so those he takes to the back which is really nice. I've never asked for this service...maybe the previous homeowner did?

My UPS guy is fantastic. Always brings things to the porch. If I see him in time and hold the door, he puts them in my living room. And with Amazon Prime I get a lot. I did give him a Christmas present.

USPS is kind of hit or miss. I think the subs will leave a package for the next guy instead of bringing it up to the porch. Last year on Dec. 23, I received 1 of 2 boxes that had been sent at the same time. The next day, the 24th, the lady put mail in the box and continued on. We live on a dead-end street and when she came back I stood out in the street. "Oh, yeah, I have a box for you."

Maybe because they are not addressed to you, they prefer to leave it by the mailbox. Sounds like a strange setup to me. What do they do if a signature is required? I have a new mail carrier that I haven't met, but until then, I had (and still have) a good relationship with my old one. I also got to know the UPS guys, since I buy a lot of stuff online. Never had a problem. He even left a box of booze on my porch because he knew I wasn't around to sign for it, rather than make me wait a couple of days more for it. And it's not like I tip or anything, I'm just friendly when I see them!

My normal UPS driver is wonderful. With Prime I put him to work. The extras they have at Christmas are not as good. They leave the packages at the garage door and days may go by before we realize it is there.

USPS is hit or miss. If all they have to do is put junk mail in the box they are fine. When it comes to mail holds or forwarding they never get it right.

All of my packages go to the "mail room" to be sorted and delivered to the tenants so the delivery driver just has to make one stop. I was surprised by the condition of my packages yesterday because they were really beat up. I was lucky that nothing was broken.

I am the other way. I have asked my delivery folks to leave stuff, as I work days and they rarely come when I am at home. It's a big inconvenience to have to go to get my packages, UPS and FEDEX are about 20 miles away. At least USPS holds onto it for you, but I have had both FEDEX and UPS return stuff to the seller the same week it arrived, before I got a chance to go and get it. They can't get to my house as I have a locked gate, but they put it over the fence on the walk and I haven't ever had anything go missing, despite living in a low income neighborhood. I have varying results with different FEDEX and UPS drivers, from super nice to drop and run. My postal guys have all been nice.

@samstag: I saw my UPS driver cruising the neighborhood with a heavily loaded dolly on Monday when I went home for lunch. I kept an eye out to see if he had anything for me but he didn't.

This is the time of year when things get pretty nuts for the delivery guys. Somewhere around here I have a photo from a few years ago of a UPS guy making neighborhood deliveries on foot with a big hand cart.

I'm avoiding making any more delivery orders for the rest of the year because it's really frustrating tracking down missing items. When they hire temps our stuff gets delivered everywhere but the correct address.

DH is in outside industrial sales and works from the house. It is a rare day when he doesn't get a package of samples, most bulky and/or heavy. Our regular UPS driver recognizes us whenever we see him around town and, although he might not remember our names, he can recite our address! (LOL!)

It can't possibly be allowed by delivery rules (UPS, FedEx, USPS or any other) to leave large packages at the end of a driveway. Since you work out of your home, I suggest catching each delivery person and asking them first, then calling the company if it continues to be a problem. As other folks have noted, I suspect that you're getting a lot of short-timers who are only hired for the holiday rush. If this is the case, you might convince one to do the right thing, only to have a newbie the next day. Let the company know that this is a problem. They need to talk with ALL of their delivery folks so all will know what is expected.

Fortunately both my mail carrier (most of the time it's a sub, or someone new) and my UPS are pretty good about leaving packages on my enclosed porch.

The mail carrier doesn't ring the bell in most cases, but it is pretty easy to spot a package when going in/out of the house. On some occasions they leave it right on the ledge by my mailbox (it's by the porch door), but that's pretty rare. I think they don't mind putting it inside because they have to walk up the stairs to the porch to put the mail in the box anyway.

The UPS guy is so good, he used to leave a biscuit for my dog (when she was alive) because he loved her so much (she was a lover and had met him on a few occasions, and never barked when he put stuff on the porch and the house door was open and she could see him leaving it!). He always rings the bell! On the few occasions we don't have our regular UPS guy, they have left the package right by the front door or on the ledge by the front door.

I had one that was so awesome, we even gave him a gift for Christmas. He would always put our packages in the garage. Now we have a new person who doesn't do this. One time this person put an extremely light package outside on a very windy day and I wake up and can't find the package anywhere. Later I managed to see a little brown speck in the middle of the large field next to us.

@kmeltzer: I am in a very similar situation. All my delivery people are terrific, they will even cover my packages with plastic bags if it is raining and we are not home. I have asked them not to knock on the door because it gets my dogs going, so they honk when they pull up which doesn't get a rise out of my critters at all.

All my delivery people have been pretty good. My house is up a little hill, and they always take it right up to me. If needed, they back into (and up) my driveway and leave things at my front door or on the front porch. I've, long ago, asked them not to ring my bell since my dog goes nuts and I know they are there (since I also work from home). Unless it's a sub, they don't ring the bell.

The only thing that sometimes happens is they leave things at my garage door. I think when it's a bunch of heavier things. Luckily, I look, because if I didn't it would be very easy for me to back over packages when they do that. But, it's only been a handful of times.

I am very lucky. My UPS driver is great and if I am not home and he needs a signature he will give the package to the UPS guy that delivers to my office to get the signature. Talk about going above and beyond!

Maybe there is some animosity because of good ol' Amazon business. Rumor has it that USPS just won the bid for all the Amazon shipping and took it from UPS.

@carl669: Yep that is exactly the scenerio you can see everything just sitting there. Instead of going to their boss I've talked to them personally and so far so good. However I still get that from the sub drivers and those random delivery companies that Amazon and others use

It makes me wonder if their employers have accepted this behavior as means to run their business with less trucks on the road

Mine still carries it to the door but the delivery didn't happen from the Post Office until about 9pm. My guess would be, with all the cuts, they are working late hours to get everything delivered and are trying to find shortcuts where they can. Hope you don't get any packages stolen.

I did try with Fedex a couple of times to have the package rerouted to a Fedex Office when I knew I wasnt going to be home for a delivery but it was still delivered anyways.

actually, can they even leave the package there? Is the package just sitting there in plain sight 20 feet from your house? for US mail, i'd call your local post office and see if that's even legal. For UPS, i'd definitely call and ask what their policy is and file a complaint if needed. like you said, you're paying for delivery.

I totally understand that every jerk in the neighborhood probably has a package coming with regularity leading up to Christmas and they probably have to walkup to hundreds of doors a day. However, I have paid for the delivery and I expect my packages to be walked that extra 20 feet so every car passing by doesn't see a pile of delivered packages sitting in my front yard.

So I ask, has your parcel delivery person given up and just half-asses it now?

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